How to break up a 4 hour gig??

My band has a gig at a bar this Saturday and we have to play 10pm-2am (4hrs). and i was wondering from those with past expericence. . . how do you break this up?

obviously its not a concert and we wont be on stage the entire time, but how do we break up the sets with breaks, and how far do we space songs apart?

we were planning to do 40-45 popular classic rock covers-- too much? to little?

any advice? or do u see any flaws in this?

Black Star

01-04-2010, 01:51 PM

45-minutes-an-hour is generally a good rule to follow. Make sure to include crowd interaction in between songs.

Lurcher

01-04-2010, 02:32 PM

One of the tricks is to do it as 3 sets and take breaks of 20-30 mins. Start each set with easy stuff to get warmed up and end with popular rousing stuff that the crowd will like. Leave a bit of time for an encore if that is normal at the venue.

smartalec007

01-04-2010, 06:27 PM

Do things every 10 songs or so. Ask if theres any audience members who play guitar and challenge them to a guitar duel. It seems kinda corny, but you have to admitt, it would get the crowd pumped.

kyle62

01-04-2010, 08:36 PM

With something like that we often run it as a 'jam session', getting a few preselected guests up to play, and perhaps even opening the stage to others depending on the circumstances. Tends to make it more varied from an audience point of view.